New voters: We all win

Growing participation of young voters in the process is good sign for present and future

Posted: Thursday, October 30, 2008

By The Capital-Journal Editorial Board

Young voters across the country are expected to go to the voting booths Tuesday in greater numbers, and perhaps play a larger role in determining our next president, than ever before.

We welcome all first-timers to the fray, but caution that voting can become addictive.

Young people ages 18 to 24 traditionally had been the group most immune to the lure of a good election, but their interest has been growing since the turn of the century.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 36 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds voted in 2000, and 47 percent of their numbers went to the voting booths in 2004. No other age group increased its turnout by more than 5 percent between those two elections. Some political scientists expect young voters to increase their participation again this year, given their interest in the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama.

We aren't endorsing either of the presidential candidates here — although we fully expect Kansas to maintain its spot among the red states — but think anything that generates more interest and participation in the political process is a good thing.

A young Republican who supports Sen. John McCain, Virginia college student Casby Stainback, got it right recently when she told a reporter that regardless of who wins, "The more people who participate, the better off we'll be."

Rock the Vote, a group that focuses on registering young voters, registered more that 2.3 million new voters this year, well ahead of the 1.4 million it had registered for the 2004 election that saw such a large increase in young voters.

Because young voters that year were more evenly split between the Republican and Democratic candidates, they didn't, as a bloc, sway the election to either. This year, pollsters see a strong preference for Obama and say they may play a significant role in selecting the next president.

Voter registration in Kansas already has surpassed that for 2004, when the state had 1,694,365 eligible voters. As of Oct. 24, the state had a record 1,740,841 registered voters and that number is expected to climb by Friday, when the secretary of state's office will have a final count of eligible voters for Tuesday's election.

Whether the numbers include a substantial number of new, young voters can't be determined, however, because the state's voter registration system didn't have a mechanism to collect such demographic information until this year. That means there are no earlier figures with which to compare the information being collected now.

A spokesman for the secretary of state's office said the demographic data being collected this year would provide the baseline for future comparisons.

We'd like to think young Kansans are just as excited about the election and as ready to participate in the political process as are their counterparts across the country.

But whether their interest has been sparked by a presidential candidate, a state race or local contest, we encourage them to follow through with the good intentions they had when registering to vote and cast a ballot on Election Day. Then make it a habit.